Perhaps it was just about deserved in that Graeme Souness's second-half introduction of Steven Reid corrected a previous left-sided imbalance. Not that the home manager was able to shout at Reid from the dugout, Souness having received his marching orders for vociferous, expletive-laden deconstruction of officials' decisions. It was, however, something of a surprise that he managed to get so excited about an encounter that could not exactly be termed tinderbox. That said, these are unexpectedly tense times for the Scot.

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A few weeks ago all the talk in East Lancashire revolved around whether or not Blackburn would be able to retain Souness. Rumour had it that Tottenham were eyeing him as a successor to the sacked Glenn Hoddle but, these days, it seems increasingly likely that the only way Souness will depart Ewood Park is if he, too, is dismissed.

Failure to successfully replace the departed Damien Duff - the recipient of so many outlet balls on the left wing - and David Dunn has left Blackburn looking a shadow of last season's slick passers with Tugay, in particular, suffering from the absence of his former colleagues.

With Garry Flitcroft unavailable yesterday, the home midfield lacked abrassion and their best chances consequently came in the form of long distance speculation, most notably on Tugay's part, one 30-yarder flying wide of an upright.

Tottenham, still under David Pleat's caretaker charge, did have a midfield anchor in Lesley King, back in the role George Graham first selected him before his relocation to central defence, but, despite some nice touches from Stephane Dalmat, their problems centred around the consistently, depressingly poor final pass.

With both sides failing to conjure the sort of crosses Duff once routinely supplied, even half chances proved elusive. Ironically when Paul Konchesky finally contributed a cutting edge centre, no Tottenham team-mate was available to make the most of the chance.

Souness' mounting frustration was manifested by an increasingly irascible touchline personae, something confirmed when he was sent off early in the second period.

His banishment preceded the game's best period, featuring chances at both ends with Carr crossing for Robbie Keane to fire just over at one end and Dwight Yorke to force Keller into a painful-looking save after meeting a short corner.

Souness had made the arguably match-changing decision to reshape his side at the interval, replacing the ineffective Nils-Eric Johansson with Reid, who proceeded to control his patch with beneficial effect and, combining well with Gresko, began placing increased pressure on the unfortunate Carr.

What was that Alan Curbishley said about Tottenham no longer being the third best team in London?